To start, please add this game to your log, add it to your collection (if applicable), and (when you are ready) rate it using the link above!
The wait is nearly over. The game is being detailed left and right by the media,… the amiibo have been announced,… and the Nintendo Switch is imminent… The Legend of Zelda series has been a special one for Nintendo fans since it began and the next chapter starts on March 3rd, 2017.
A hero's tale begins anew. Open your eyes and see what is true.
Fun Facts: Vast open world where you could go find the end of the game within 15 minutes… but you won't survive it. Weapons have stats and durability. Climb pretty much anything you want. Eat and cook to regain health. Full voice-acting for all except Link
Lets use this thread to discuss the game on the Nintendo Switch. To help hold the tide of the wait, here are some beautiful screenshots and links for your perusal.
Finally found that blasted Leviathan Skeleton in Hebra (and the nearby shrine.)
Stupid sensor going off had me running all over the mountains for about 20 minutes before I managed to locate it. This thing is nearly useless in a 3D environment.
So we not bothering with spoilers in here anymore? I see people just throwing out random stuff now.
No spoiler for rubber armor or leviathan. I knew about the former long ago but am still unsure what a leviathan even is. It seems like a lot of stuff is being treated as common knowledge now. At this point it's okay for most stuff but not everything. I'm still in the dark about the entire desert side of the world, Death Mountain, and various other chunks of land. I'm sure there's a ton of equipment I'm not aware of either. I've glanced at my bro's inventory screen and saw a lot of cool stuff I wish I didn't see.
@Shadowlink I mean it SORT OF does in the sense that I have a quest to take pictures of them but have no idea where they are and you just said where one is.
But I also don't know where that place you said is and will probably forget the name of it by the time I get there anyway.
Finally found all the shrines. I had already gotten all the Kass shrines, and I had three shrines left aside from the one for sand seal racing that I knew of. Two I found by shrine locator by traipsing around the world until I found them both in Hebra. The last one, I had to look up because I had no remaining quests, and my shrine locator wouldn't have signaled for it. It was the second Super Gut Challenge in the Gerudo region. I was close to seeing the Goron brothers when saving some travelers for a side quests, but yeah, would not have returned to the area for any particular reason for a long time.
@Shadowlink That one had me confused too, though eventually I could tell from the way the sensor was working that it was in the mountain. Still took some doing to find after that. It was only one of a few times the sensor wasn't very helpful, but overall it did more good than harm.
Yeah I figured that as well, but I spent 20 minutes floating up and down the north side looking for something to bomb. The actual entrance was so much further away in the other direction....
So like... Zelda has always been pretty heavily inspired by Indian culture, right? Am I off here?
Just thinking about this because Shirley and I just watched a movie set in India (well, and Australia) called Lion and a lot of the scenery and some of the customs (like the little dishes set in front of statues to put food in as an offering) and such really made me think of Zelda.
I know some of this stuff exists in Japanese culture too. But the Zelda games even use "rupee" as the currency in the game, so...?
Just saved the day last night! What a great game. While I have a few small complaints (lack of traditional dungeons, music and story are merely good instead of great, some inventory-related niggles), the game as a whole was so far beyond almost anything else I've played lately that they barely matter.
Final stats upon the initial ending: All shrines! All memories! 52.25% complete 160+ hours
In fact, as of now, BotW is my third-favorite Zelda, my favorite game of the current millennium, and my seventh-favorite game overall. Outstanding job, Aonuma and team! One day I will write more on it, but I'm one happy camper from Zelda.
EDIT: I voted it a 9.8 here and am currently the third-lowest score for the game. Hah!
That's strange because I heard there was quite a bit of Norse mythology swirled into the mix too. And of course that cross on the shield back in the day....I think it's fair to say there's been a range of influences.
I grabbed my last shrines last night. I'm apparently at something like 47% or something. But at this point I'm kind of feeling...now what?
Do I really want to go find more Koroks? Why? Farming for more Armour upgrades? Eh.
Maybe I'm just burnt out, but I think HoH has mostly nailed it. I feel like I've seen all there is to see and the rest is basically busywork. The exploration elements were excellent of course...whilst they lasted. But after that it feels like the game doesn't really have much more to offer anymore. I dunno.
@Shadowlink Yeah, and obviously the Gerudo are Middle Eastern-inspired, and I was reading about how the bird people (forget their names) are inspired by somewhere in South America? I guess they just grab from everywhere?
Well, all good things must end. There's naturally going to be a point where little is surprising in a game, but for BotW to take over 100 hours to get to that point is extremely impressive. I really can't complain that it eventually feels "conquered" when that "eventually" basically amounts to playing it for the amount of time one would normally spend on five games...
I haven't played in almost three weeks now. I've broken Zelda's spell on me. I'm free!
That's not to say I'm bored of it or anywhere close to "done," though. On the contrary, it's exactly the kind of game I can pick up for an hour or so on a whim and have a good time just ticking off boxes or exploring parts of my map that look suspiciously barren.